Word cheap for students

Student deals

Educational discount theme

If you are a student looking to buy office for a reduced price, Microsoft has an educational discount scheme, where through four of their internet sellers: Software4Students,Thebasement, Pugh and Phoenix Software students can purchase Microsoft Office at a hefty reduction.

This reduction is around £400, making the software price for students around £40, which are great student offers.

Buying straight from Microsoft

However, if you are a university student or have an Ac.uk email address, you can buy straight from Microsoft using this. This can be done by visiting Microsoft.com.

Once you are on the website, there will be a pop-up to ask whether you have an Ac.uk email address.

You can click yes to proceed to buying the full 2010 Microsoft office package. This discount is little known and can have a huge reduction on the price for software for students.

Adult deals

Purchase at a reduced price

If you are not a student and are still looking at purchasing Microsoft Office licensed software for a discounted price, then it is still possible for you to purchase through one of the four sellers that have a reduced price.

This is because these sites do not require any sort of verification that you are a student, therefore, without going through the unnecessary expenditure of around £400 for the package, you can pick it up for a fraction of it.

Buying from Dell

Another method for students and adults are that if, at the time of buying, you are also looking to invest in a computer or laptop, you must bear in mind that using sites such as Dell, can give you a good deal, with Microsoft software as an extra.

Therefore, buying it with an additional purchase can lower the cost. A bonus to this, is that it will already be installed, further reducing hassle.

The places mentioned in the article are recommended by Microsoft, so will be the most reputable for the student deals.

Other sites are undetermined to their reputation and so, it’s better to buy from a site linked with Microsoft web page for safety.

Microsoft Office is a useful tool for both study and work, but it doesn’t come cheap. If you’re looking for the cheapest way to get Microsoft Office, there are methods you can use to get the productivity suite for a fraction of the price.

Here are some ways to get Microsoft Office cheaply versus buying it full-price at the store.

1. Use Microsoft’s Student Office Plans

If you’re wincing at Microsoft Office’s price because you’re a student, you may be entitled to Office 365 for free. Not all students can claim this offer, as your institute needs to enroll with Microsoft to benefit from this plan. However, it’s worth giving it a shot to see if you can get Office for free.

To check if you’re eligible, head to the official Office 365 Education page and enter your school email address into the box. If you’re eligible, you should receive a code for Office 365, which you can use right away.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t a lifetime gift. Once you graduate from your current school, Microsoft may check up on you to see if you’re still eligible.

If you’re not, you’ll have to buy Office out of pocket. Not to worry, however; you’re still eligible to purchase Microsoft’s alumni deal at $12 for a year.

While we’re on the topic, why not explore some amazing discounts you can get with a student email account? They’re a great way to save some cash on a student budget.

2. Use Microsoft’s Office Online Website

Did you know that you can use Microsoft Office online for free? It’s not getting an Office license per se, but it’s an excellent way to use Word without paying anything.

If you head over to Office.com, you’ll find the entire Office suite ready for you to use. All you need to do is log in with a Microsoft account, and you can start using Office at no extra cost.

Office Online supports uploading, editing, and downloading Office files from your computer. If you have a Word document you want to read, but you have no word processor, you can upload it to Office Online to read it.

So, what’s the catch? Office Online does not have the full range of features that Office 365 has, and it lacks several useful features.

Microsoft will continuously remind you of this as you use it, prodding you to purchase a subscription while you use Office Online. However, for a free alternative to Microsoft Office, it fits the bill.

3. Use the Mobile Office Apps for Android and iOS

Speaking of free Office software, you can also find each component of Office for free on mobile. Again, it’s not strictly getting an Office license, but it’s still advantageous if you want to save money legally.

Both the Android and the iOS app stores have them, and Microsoft is working on a more extensive, all-encompassing Office app for release later down the line.

Download: Word | Excel | PowerPoint | OneNote | OneDrive (Android)

Download: Word | Excel | PowerPoint | OneNote | OneDrive (iOS)

4. Use Third-Party Retailers and Hunt for Sales

If you want to purchase Microsoft Office legitimately, it’s worth checking for Microsoft Office deals from verified sellers. Some of them may have some great Microsoft Office 365 deals, and others may even list Office for a lower price than Microsoft themselves.

For example, the Microsoft Store currently lists Office 2019 at $149, but how much is Microsoft Office on, say, Amazon?

As it turns out, you can buy a digital download on the Amazon store for a lesser amount. This is a great way to save money on Office while still going through legitimate channels.

Alternatively, from a reputable seller like Mr Key Shop, you can purchase Microsoft Office suite licenses from just $44.99, delivered digitally in seconds. Ranging from Microsoft Office 2010 to Office 2021 Professional; there’s a wealth of options for personal, student, and business use.

Buy Office 365 from Microsoft.com

5. Get Microsoft Office Cheap on Gray Market Stores

If none of the above work for you, the gray market is your best bet. Gray market websites can offer a huge Microsoft Office discount that’s hard to resist.

These websites are called a «gray market» because people sell keys without the blessing or authorization of the original developer or publisher. This means there’s no surefire guarantee that you’ll get what you pay for, or that the developer will support the purchase.

So, why bother with gray markets? Simple; their unbeatable price.

While Microsoft sells Office 2019 for $149, and Amazon sells it for $109, Kinguin currently sells keys for as low as $35—a saving of $115 over Microsoft.

The Moral Issues of Gray Market Stores

However, before you grab a key from a gray market store, consider why these keys are so cheap in the first place. A price cut like this doesn’t come without a few downsides, after all.

First, make sure you know who you’re buying from. Gray market stores will often work like eBay, where individual people and small companies list the products. As such, scams can happen, to the point where some gray market stores ask for an additional cost to protect your purchase.

Also, a seller may put a key up for a low price because it’s an OEM key. These aren’t as desirable as retail keys, as you can only install an OEM on one machine, and one time only. If that machine is lost or breaks down, you’ll need to wrestle with Microsoft tech support to get a reactivation. If they say no, you’ll have to buy Office again.

Finally, gray market stores are a goldmine for thieves. Criminals can steal credit and debit cards and then use the funds to purchase many Office keys. They can then flip the Office keys on gray market websites for a lower price than retail, then direct the profits to their bank account.

What Is an OEM Key?

We briefly touched upon OEM keys above, so it’s worth going into detail on what these are. You should consider OEM keys when buying a license to avoid any future headaches.

OEM stands for «Original Equipment Manufacturer,» and keys labeled as OEM are intended for computer builders. If you’ve ever bought a computer or a laptop that came with Office pre-installed, there’s a good chance that it uses an OEM key.

Computer manufacturers and builders purchase the OEM key and immediately install it onto a device. You can’t use an OEM key to install Office on multiple machines; that’s what the retail version is for.

As such, if a computer with an OEM version of Office is stolen or fails, you can’t re-use the key on a new computer. Some OEM keys will even identify if you change the hardware on your machine and make the OEM invalid.

OEM keys are cheaper than buying retail Office suites, so manufacturers can supply Office with their computers without hiking up the price. This is how manufacturers can sell laptops with Office pre-installed at around the same price as the retail version of Office.

Despite using them outside their intended use, buying an OEM key by itself isn’t illegal. Just as long as the key was bought through legitimate means, there’s no reason to worry about the legality of buying OEM keys.

Improving Your Productivity for Less

Microsoft Office’s price can be prohibitive, but it doesn’t have to burn a hole in your pocket. By using the free versions, finding a cheap deal, or using a gray market website, you can get your hands on this powerful productivity suite for less.

If you’d rather use a free alternative to Office, don’t worry. There are plenty of alternatives out there, and a huge number of them are worthy of your time.

PROS: -Improvements over some of the features of my Office 2013. Some features in the 2013 version that had become unsupported like the popup synonyms and dictionary work on the new version. The interface is improved over 2013. Although my first choice was to continue to use 2013, at least 2022 was available for me to buy, and I didn’t have to rent Office 365.

CONS:-I would have stayed with Office 2013 but Microsoft is determined to improve their revenue flow by forcing folks to either rent Office 365 or purchase an update to a newer version of Office.

I like Microsoft Office Home and Student 2022 just fine. It works quite well on my new computer, and the learning curve from Office 2013 was not steep. However….

Beginning of a mindless RANT:

I’ve been using Microsoft products for at least 40 years, and I’ve spent thousands of dollars on their software. I appreciate that Windows Home 11 is pretty much free now, and I’m pleased that I no longer have to pay $500 for their word processor. That said, I was very disappointed when I reached the end of the road on my old computer at Windows 10 because the computer wouldn’t run Windows 11. I gave in and upgraded to new machines to go to Windows 11. That was my choice. I don’t dislike Windows 11, and so far it works well for me, but when I tried to install Office 2013, I was not able to «ACTIVATE» it through my Microsoft account. I went farther back to my disk for Office 2007. Again, installation was not allowed. Instead, I was encouraged to rent software access for an online connection to Office 365 (A limited «free» version of Office 365 is available for strictly online use in order to compete with Google DOCS, but I would be out of luck if the internet goes down). I chose to purchase Office for Home and Student 2022 from Amazon instead.

I don’t change software or hardware often. For example, we still use Quicken 2013 primarily because we don’t like the «improvements» in the later versions that increase the price while removing features that we actually found useful, and of course, Intuit really wants you to rent Quicken. Office 2013 lasted me for 9 years on my old machine. If I had been paying $90/year rent for the software, then I would have spent more than $800. That’s more than 3 times what I paid to buy it. If I wanted to do online software, I could have used Google DOCs for free or the free version of Office 365 online.

The last straw for me in this rent software business model is that HP now requires an activation to set up their printer software. I have a friend who got a new laptop. She asked me to setup her printer on the new machine. Easy, I thought, even though I worried over, IMHO, HP’s sparse instructions, kludgy software, and an annoying and implacable website. I installed the print drivers despite the bad instructions and user interface. Then I was taken to an activation page. Activation Page! I tried to sign into her account from when she bought the printer for her old computer, but of course she didn’t remember the password she used. I tried to set up a new account for her but that was impossible because her email address was already in use. Now I will have to completely uninstall the print drivers, request a password reset and start all over again. And HP wants her to join their ink-of-the-month club by guessing how much ink she might use. A printer is a physical device. No one is going to make a copy of a printer and give it to their friends to use on an unauthorized machine. That is one of many reasons that I no longer buy HP printers after years of using nothing else. For my personal use, I switched to Brother, which is not as fast as an HP, but it orders its own ink from Amazon WHEN IT NEEDS IT.

Now ACTIVATION is being used by software companies to force you to discard your favorite old software and buy or rent their new versions. I understand that software companies reach a point where they no longer want to support older software, but I prefer to upgrade on my schedule, not theirs. And I do upgrade when I’m sure that the features I like will continue, that the new features make the upgrade worth the price, and that I won’t be held hostage to a new file structure or business model.

Therefore, it is my intention to NOT participate in rented software if I can avoid it. I never liked working on main frame computers using terminals and having to deal with centralized control. «Personal computers» were part of the revolution for me because they were personal. They stood alone for better or worse. They were not at the whim of some faceless tech. The current trend to re-centralize computing operations may appeal to many people, but I shall resist it so long as I can get away with it.

As a final aside, IMHO, the worst perpetrators in this new rental model are the Tax Preparation Software companies that do not clearly document what schedules are included in their entry/base rental price OR their entry/base purchase software. Only after you get started, do you discover that you have to pay a lot extra to get the one schedule that was not included. Imagine seeing that Schedule C is included but later you discover that it is only for Schedule C to enter income, you have to pay more if you want a Schedule C to include expenses. Oh, you can enter the expenses by hand, but then the company will not file your tax return that was part of your purchase price: you have to print the return and mail it in. Fortunately, I knew better than to buy anything so woefully described. Unfortunately, I had to buy a version of the software that included many more features than I needed just to be able to get Schedule C expenses AND free electronic filing. However, that was much cheaper than buying the next version down and then having to pay a large added fee to get the missing expense page. IMHO, the IRS is squeezing everyone into the online filing mode, and the software companies are coming up with all kinds of schemes to drive up the fees they can extract from their users. Don’t get me wrong, I love online filing, but the misleading ads by the software companies providing these services is open to more abuse than selling timeshares. If you are selling TAX software, then the ads should clearly state which Schedules your software will provide and note any limitations.

End of mindless RANT.

Thank you Microsoft for allowing me to buy Office for Home and Office 2022. I would have been looking for a different software brand rather than signup to rent Office 365.